Lake Margrethe Fishing in Crawford County, Michigan
Lake Margrethe Area

I have been fishing Lake Margrethe since 1976 I have seen it go from one of the best lakes I ever fished to just fair From 1976 through the mid 1988 you could always go out any day of the summer and catch enough 8 to 10 inch perch to have a family dinner There were also plenty of large sunfish bluegill and rockbass Nice size small mouth bass were also pentiful 28 to 34 inch pike could also be caught in decent numbers through out the summer and fishing was especially good in the Fall It is my opinion that large stocking programs of Walleye Tiger Muskey and Muskey has destroyed the natural balance of the lake I love Walleye as much as the next guy but this lake is not the right habitat for Walleye The lake is very shallow with mostly sand bottom and sporadic weedbeds I know of only one small natural rocky bottom area in the lake The experts claim that the Walleye are reproducing but I believe for the most part they are not The Walley and nonreproducing Tiger Muskey have decimated the schools of large perch and other baith fish We also used to prctice our flyfishing on large schools of 4 to 8 inch shiners which I have not seen in years I have caught a few Walleye in the lake but it takes a lot of work I certainly would not take a first time fisherman or a child to fish Walleye on this lake As far as Tiger Musky and Musky I have only caught one and I fish for pike frequently Again they are eating machines do not reproduce and compete against the natural occuring pike Don't get me wrong you can still catch perch sunfish bluegill and rockbass but they are much smaller specimens and take a lot more work to catch You can also still catch small mouth and large mouth but they also take much more work to catch and are caught much more infrequently than in years past I can catch 1 pike per 2 to 3 hours of intense fishing in the morning only but they are also now on the small side 20 to 28 inch It is my opinion that the best thing that the DNR could do is to implement stocking programs that attempt to bring the lake back to it's natural balance No more Walley Musky I would much rather catch a lot of large perch, bass and pike than a small number of Walleye and Muskey I also think that restoring the wetlands on the east side of the lake where M27 is As with many lakes the wetlands were cut off from the lake when the roadway was built up and put in There are is also another wetlands on the West side of the lake inide the National Guard base that has been cutoff from the lake These wetlands used provide extremely important spawning grounds and fry protectection. The saddest part of this whole story is development and fishing pressure are not the problem hear The fishing pressure has always been limited and the state owns the majority of the land that surrounds the lake We have other great Walleye and Musky lakes in the state let this lake be a great perch and small lake like it once was

Caught about 50 blue gill and perch straight out from the campground in about 10-12 ft of water